Good Neighbor Experiment
Form a Team. Join a Cohort.
Connect with your actual, literal neighbors.
Help your congregation move from:
Inauthenticity to Joy
Draining Program Management to Relationships
Scarcity to Abundance
In a Good Neighbor Experiment cohort, you will be given practical resources to connect with your community using Asset Based Community Development.
We are offering two cohorts in 2024: one from January-June, and one from July-November. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact us using the form at the bottom of the page!
Click the button below to access an overview document of the Good Neighbor Experiment!
Become a certified Good Neighbor Church!
The Neighboring Movement wants to celebrate and recognize churches that show dedication and effort in growing in their relationships with neighbors around their church building, inside their church (amongst each other), and around the homes where each member lives. Good Neighbor Churches are not focused on evangelizing their neighbors, but on cultivating neighboring relationships for relationship’s sake!
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Receive a plaque made of walnut wood harvested and crafted by one of our own neighbors, be featured on our website, let us brag on you to your DS or equivalent denominational official, be eligible for seed money for your asset-based, hyperlocal projects, and much more! See the link to the left for specifics.
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1. Complete GNE with the church’s neighboring team.
2. Fill out a short application that shares GNE/individual neighboring stories with us, with pictures preferred. Include signatures of the neighboring team.
3. Send evidence that the congregation made a design change to increase neighboring presence.
4. Send evidence that the neighboring team completed 12 learning conversations in the church, around the church, and around their homes.
5. Get a referral from the coach.
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Good Neighbor Churches are invited to renew their certificate every 3 years by showing that they have made at least one change to strengthen neighboring relationships on each of the 3 axes: in the church, around the church, and around their homes.
Considering GNE for your church? Interested in FAN?
Fill out this form to contact our program director, Ian Campbell, today!
Here is what is included in a GNE cohort!
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Key Ingredients of Neighboring is a 4-week all-church series including sermon guides, worship prompts, digital resources, and adult small group materials.
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Form a Neighboring Team and join us for four online events to help keep your church motivated as they connect with your community.
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Your congregation will be paired with one of our four trained facilitators to guide you through the cohort.
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You will gain access to 15 weeks of small group curriculum that will help your church become a connector in your community.
FAQs
Are your cohorts in-person or virtual?
Our current cohort model consists of an all-church series and three labs or small group studies. These are designed to be done in person with your church. We kick off each lab with an online workshop hosted by our staff for all churches participating in the cohort nationwide. Following our last lab, we also host an online celebration and storytelling event where all participating churches can learn from each other, cheer each other on, and deepen our connections for the future of neighboring.
Will the Good Neighbor Experiment help grow our church numbers?
Church growth is not the aim of the Good Neighbor Experiment. While we have found that people tend to gravitate towards the relational work of neighboring, increased church attendance is not a goal we measure. Instead we look to metrics of relationship, abundance, and joy as markers of fruitfulness.
How much does it cost for my church to join a cohort?
The cost is $1,000 per church. This includes a 4-week worship series, small group materials, a planning guide, a small group curriculum with 15 weeks of material, personalized coaching by one of our trained facilitators, lifetime access to our alumni network, and more! We offer two cohorts in 2024, one starting after the New Year and the other starting in early July.
Is the Good Neighbor Experiment a good fit for my small church?
Yes! However many people you can get who are serious about neighboring and willing to join your neighboring team is enough. We believe your community is abundant, and the power of relationship provides for exponential growth in countless ways!
What do you mean by “neighboring”?
The Good Neighbor Experiment helps participants build relationships with their actual, literal neighbors. Grounded in asset-based community development (ABCD), participants learn the giftedness of their neighbors and neighborhoods through conversation and connection.
What if most congregants don’t live in the church’s neighborhood?
No worries! We recognize this is often the case, and we believe that the Good Neighbor Experiment both helps churches re-contextualize their relationships with the neighborhoods in which they are located and also helps individuals re-engage with their own personal neighbors.
Our Partners
Lilly Endowment
In 2020, the Neighboring Movement was awarded the Thriving Congregations grant through the Lilly Endowment in partnership with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund:
Discipleship Ministries
As of July 2021, the Good Neighbor Experiment was endorsed by the United Methodist Discipleship Ministries as a program to further their #SeeAllthePeople campaign:
United Methodist Health Ministry Fund
The UMHMF, based in Hutchinson, KS, partners with the Neighboring Movement through a program called Healthy Congregations which nurtures church and community health in Kansas, Nebraska, and across the country:
GNE Resources
Access the GNE Resource Page
Once you have signed up for the Good Neighbor Experiment, you will have access to all of our resources to participate in the cohort. Click the button below to access the portal.